GOP once stood for stability, but no more

Letters to the editor on the debt ceiling deal, for Oct. 20, 2013

Where have ye gone, GOP?

What has happened to that grand old party that we called the Republican Party? It used to stand for stability, common sense and financial responsibility. The vast majority of Americans blame the Republican Party for the government shutdown and its popularity is the lowest in history.

The "sequester,” crafted by the Republicans, has hit hardest at those who can least afford it - the elderly, poor and children. The shutdown cost the country billions of dollars and again was most damaging to those who could not afford to lose money. In San Diego, Cabrillo Monument couldn't have its 100th anniversary, the Miramar Air Show was cancelled, and Meals on Wheels couldn't deliver food to shut-in seniors - not to mention all the federal employees and military who lost pay.

This paper then had the audacity to run a large picture of John Boehner on the front page. What war? This is not a dictatorship - it is suppose to be a democracy where we work together to run the government. Take the name "San Diego" out of your newspaper. You do not care about San Diego and certainly do not represent us.

Maryann Zounes

San Marcos

Capital ‘stables’ need cleansing

In Greek mythology, one of the labors required of Hercules was to clean out the Augean stables. These stables, which belonged to Augeas, one of the Argonauts, had housed more than 1,000 cattle for more than 30 years without ever being cleaned. The task of cleaning them in one day, which Hercules had promised, was thought to be impossible. But by using his wits, Hercules succeeded at the task by rerouting two rivers to wash out the filth.

Where is our modern-day Hercules when most needed? We have some "stables" in our nation’s capital that have become filthy over the past 30 years. Perhaps our Hercules could clean them by rerouting the Potomac River to wash out the filth.

Whit Whitlock

El Cajon

Sequester not worth the cost

The U-T Oct. 17 editorial ("GOP: Losing the battle, winning the war") exults over the spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and ensuing automatic "sequestration.” But at what cost? An op-ed article the same day by the president and CEO of the California Healthcare Institute describes the grave damage to biomedical research caused by cuts in funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As stated in the article, the immediate effects are felt by the scientific community, but "a far greater anguish will be felt by future generations of patients.”

Conservatives bemoan the supposed "hollowing-out" of our military, ignoring the reality that the United States spent more on defense in 2012 than did the countries with the next 10 highest defense budgets combined. They and your editorial staff should be worrying more about the hollowing-out of our science.

Donald G. Yeckel

La Jolla

GOP debt dance

Rush Limbaugh says it better than me: “The Republicans have done everything they can to try to make everyone like them and what they've ended up doing is creating one of the greatest political disasters I've ever seen in my lifetime.”